BioGeoSCAPES Fellow Brings International Insight

BioGeoSCAPES Fellow Brings International Insight

Summer is a busy time at Bigelow Laboratory with a steady stream of visitors, including undergraduate interns, interested tourists, and temporary researchers. Among them this summer was Preston Akenga from Kisii University in Kenya. Akenga spent three months with Steve Archer, a senior research scientist who specializes in atmospheric chemistry and directs Bigelow Analytical Services. Working together, Akenga was able to foster new research partnerships and develop varied new skills - in everything from advanced techniques in analytical chemistry to canoeing.

"The interaction was good from the start," Akenga said of working with Archer. "The relationship we've built isn't going to break anytime soon, and I'm excited to see how this collaboration grows in the future."

Akenga did his PhD at the University of Plymouth in the U.K. studying the fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment. It wasn't until his postdoctoral work, also at Plymouth, that those broader interests in analytical methods led him to Archer's particular area of expertise: measuring trace gases in the ocean that play an essential role in regulating the climate.

It was also at Plymouth that Akenga became part of the BioGeoSCAPES program. A global research network funded through the National Science Foundation, BioGeoSCAPES has been instrumental in advancing biogeochemistry and training the next generation of researchers in the field.

The BioGeoSCAPES fellows program provides an interdisciplinary cohort of early-career scientists access to networking and professional development opportunities and funding for an international research exchange. Akenga was part of the program's first cohort and the first fellow from the African continent.

He connected with Archer in 2023 through his PhD advisor at Plymouth and arrived, for the first time in Maine - and the U.S. broadly - in June.

His visit at Bigelow Laboratory, he says, was short but productive.

"Steve's research is perfectly tied with my own interests, and I've been able to learn so much about analytical chemistry in his lab," Akenga said. "We have a significant gap in my country in our ability to measure trace gases, and I'm excited to take the skills I've learned here to expand the toolkit at my own university."

During his stay, he also had the opportunity to work with researchers across the institute, including senior research scientists Christoph Aeppli and Rachel Sipler with whom he began digging into how to measure contaminants like PFAS in aquatic environments. They have concrete plans, he says, to continue building on that work now that he's back in Kenya, and he's already thinking about his next visit to Bigelow Laboratory.

"We tried to focus on research themes and approaches that could be useful, fundable, and practical in Kenya and beyond. Preston obviously adds a Kenyan perspective that is vital if we're going to do useful research in the region," Archer said. "He added a cheerful note to my summer for sure, and we're both committed to turning this into an ongoing research collaboration."

Akenga is no stranger to these kinds of international partnerships. Earlier in his career, he participated in programs through the Royal Society of Chemistry's Pan Africa Chemistry Network, all toward his larger goal of increasing analytical capacity in Kenya and across the continent.

"International collaboration is one of the best ways to improve research infrastructure and tools," Akenga said, "Environmental change is an international problem, and we need international relationships and knowledge sharing to address it."